After 170 Years, the Future Is Uncertain for California’s Iconic Lighthouses

By Ian Rodney Lazarus / SFGate / Nov 3, 2025 

Few structures evoke such varied emotions as the sight of a weathered lighthouse standing firm against an incoming tide. Without these tall, circular towers set along the shore, California wouldn’t be what it is today.

But these iconic coastal features have lost almost all their original function, replaced by modern technology, and simultaneously face threats from age and environmental degradation. They’re some of the oldest structures still standing, largely due to their sentimental value, even as they come under increasing financial strain. For all the pride and pleasure we get from seeing these monuments up close, many visitors remain unaware of the challenges they face today.

Part of California’s history

As a staff officer for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in San Diego, I’ve been lucky enough to explore California’s lighthouses in ways others aren’t able to. Walking on grounds that retain original structures approaching two centuries old, it feels like walking right out of a time machine. Very little has changed, even inside the homes that were occupied by the original keepers and officers more than 150 years ago.

On Sept. 28, 1850, more than two weeks after California’s admission into the union, Congress appropriated $90,000 to build lighthouses along the state’s coast. A second appropriation of nearly $60,000 occurred in 1854 to complete the project, and eight structures were built from Battery Point, near the border with Oregon, to Point Loma at the southern tip of the United States. The cost is equivalent to roughly $6 million in today’s dollars.

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego, Calif., during the 1950s.
Frederic Lewis/Getty Images

These lighthouses played a vital role in opening up the West Coast to economic development during the Gold Rush and stimulated the development of communities across the state. Some of the original structures are set to turn 170 years old this year. Of those, five are still operational, and one was replaced in 1891.

Built in 1854, the original Point Loma lighthouse was at the highest elevation of any lighthouse in the U.S., at 462 feet above sea level. From its first light in 1855, the beam was lost in the fog common to San Diego and was therefore of limited value to mariners, who complained they could not see it. The original lighthouse keeper, Capt. Robert Decatur Israel, would often fire a shotgun to warn ships away from the dangerous rocks below. Ultimately, officials decided to build a second lighthouse closer to sea level, and on March 23, 1891, the old lighthouse was decommissioned and functionally replaced by the structure that continues to operate today.

In 1939, the governing body for lighthouses merged with the U.S. Coast Guard. At that time, there were 5,355 employees, including 1,170 lighthouse keepers and their assistants. The very last of those lighthouse keepers was James Williams, assigned to the new Point Loma lighthouse in 1971. His widow, Darla, remembers the good and bad of living there.

“My husband called me and said we were moving,” she recalled, “but he didn’t explain exactly where we were going. All he said was that there was a washer and dryer, which was enough for me. However, nobody warned us about the field rats.”

The Williams raised two children on the restricted grounds of the lighthouse along with two other Coast Guard families. “It was a quiet lifestyle for us,” Darla Williams said.

By 1973, lighthouse automation made obsolete the need for a full-time lighthouse keeper. The Williams left the grounds at that time, and Mr. Williams retired.
Millions were introduced to the lighthouse in 1986 when the movie “Top Gun” was filmed on the grounds and in one of the three residences located there. Today, these historic homes are occupied by senior officers in the San Diego sector of the Coast Guard.
Threatened structures

Efforts to refurbish the lighthouse grounds have been attempted several times, but due to limited resources, the refurbishment project has been delayed. The Coast Guard is also investing in other technologies, such as “virtual buoys” that do not require someone to be physically on or near the water while still warning of an approaching vessel. While the new lighthouse still illuminates the entrance to San Diego bay every evening, new technology will inevitably continue to reduce reliance on lighthouses as an aid to navigation.

The Point Sur Lighthouse near Big Sur, Calif.
Education Images/Universal Image

The elimination of on-site supervision led many of these structures to fall into a state of disrepair or become subject to vandalism. Moreover, there are increasing environmental threats, including coastal erosion due to sea level rise and the corrosion of infrastructure, along with extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change.

Though under threat, lighthouses in California have a small and potentially temporary advantage over their cousins on the Atlantic coast. In addition to being relatively newer structures, it is generally accepted in the scientific community that environmental threats from sea level rise are greater on the East Coast. Then, there is the height at which California lighthouses were built, due in part to the geography of the West Coast.

“Lighthouses in California tend to be on higher ground on average, which makes them less vulnerable,” said Jeremy D’Entremont, a historian at the U.S. Lighthouse Society. “But the massive wave that hit Point Cabrillo a couple of years ago could be a sign of things to come.”

A view of the Point Cabrillo lighthouse in Mendocino County, Calif.
Pgiam/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Point Cabrillo lighthouse was built in 1909 and, for all but three times in its history (1928, 1960 and 2023), it was undisturbed by the weather. The storm that hit the region on Jan. 5, 2023, broke through the back doors, causing mud, gravel, rocks and water to flood the structure and splash about 7 feet up the walls. The building’s museum and gift shop suffered an estimated $40,000 in damage.

“As far as we can tell, the January 2023 storm was just the perfect combination of high swells, king tides and some really strong wind gusts heading east,” said Jen Lewis, the fundraising and outreach manager for the Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association. “Only three occurrences of it in 116 years isn’t too bad, right?”

There are ample studies suggesting that extreme weather events off the California coast are increasing in frequency and impact. A study published in 2023 looked at seismic records and found about a 13% rise in wave heights since 1970, along with a doubling of large wave events (over 4 meters). Another study estimated that, in the wake of storms between December 2022 and March 2023, economic losses in California came out to $4.7 billion.

Who pays to upkeep the lighthouses?
In 2000, Congress passed the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, or NHLPA. The legislation was intended to facilitate the preservation of historic lighthouses by permitting their transfer to eligible local agencies at no cost, though if the lighthouse is still used for navigation, the Coast Guard may remain involved in its management. To date, three lighthouses in California have been transferred to local municipalities and parks pursuant to the NLHPA: Pigeon Point (San Mateo County), Point Sur (Monterey County) and Point Fermin (Los Angeles County). Other intra-state transfers, outside the terms of the NHLPA, have also taken place over the years as community governments seek to find the best agency equipped to serve as caretaker. Those transfers often result in a stronger focus on conservation and open new avenues for funding it.

The Point Fermin Lighthouse in the San Pedro neighborhood in Los Angeles County, Calif.
Getty Images

The new Point Loma lighthouse was refurbished in 2017, including abrasive blast cleaning and the replacement of 20,000 pounds of degraded cast iron at an approximate cost of $2.1 million to the Cabrillo National Monument. The Old Point Loma Lighthouse also underwent restoration work in 2024.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse, closed for safety since 2001 when an iron structural element fell off the tower, is undergoing an extensive renovation for nearly $20 million, funded by both a grant from the state of California and assistance from several nonprofit organizations. It began in early 2024 and likely won’t be complete until mid-2026.

Initial cost estimates to seismically retrofit the Point Sur lighthouse in Monterey County came in at $1.5 million. A previous renovation done in 2001 was funded by California State Parks, the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers and several other organizations.

To be sure, California’s lighthouses have sentimental value, and while they may be quite literally on safer ground than their counterparts guarding the Atlantic coast, they remain vulnerable to numerous threats. But with no national restoration plans in sight, it’s unclear whether local efforts to protect them will be enough for future generations of Californians.

Ian Rodney Lazarus is Staff Officer, Publications, for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary based in San Diego. He has also published several crime thrillers.